Water Wheel May/June 2018: Web

Abstract

Tackling the national innovation challenge to attract investment The 26 April was World Intellectual Property Day. It’s a day of some controversy around the world, and, depending on whether you are a beneficiary or victim of the current global patterns of production and consumption, the day becomes one of hope or one of continued despair. This is based on an age-old discourse that has at its centre the notion of intellectual property rights as both a trade barrier as well as a barrier to localisation and development. This is an argument worth revisiting frequently as we observe significant changes in the global economic power balances. The rise of China and India in particular has created a slipstream for many developing countries who have responded quite positively. There is a close correlation between the creation of new intellectual property and innovation. An examination of the 2017 Global Innovation Index (GII 2017), compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its partners, indicates an increasing presence of African countries.

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